Latest: GFL Environmental confirmed on Tuesday that the process is over. A special committee of independent directors has concluded its review of unsolicited proposals to acquire the company and take it private, determined the proposals were not in the best interests of the company, and the board unanimously determined that remaining a public company is the best path forward, the company announced. Special committee chair Dino Chiesa said the range of valuations proposed was based on a premium to where GFL trades but is not reflective of the full value of its standalone strategy. Founder and chief executive Patrick Dovigi said the company sees a path to doubling free cash flow per share over the next five years and, for the first time in its history, flexibility for opportunistic share repurchases on a recurring basis, and that GFL will facilitate a process for parties interested in acquiring some or all of the stakes held by its financial sponsor shareholders.
GFL Environmental’s board has rejected a 22 billion dollar buyout offer from a private equity consortium led by Blackstone, KKR and Energy Capital Partners, The Globe and Mail reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The offer of 52 dollars a share valued the waste company at a 13 percent premium to its stock price on Monday. Directors concluded the bid was insufficient, pushed for 58 dollars a share or higher, and the consortium declined to meet that demand.
The decision closes the strategic review GFL’s board launched in July after receiving unsolicited interest in taking the company private. A special committee of independent directors gave interested parties a final deadline of November 9 to deliver updated proposals, according to the company’s third-quarter release, and the board informed the consortium late Monday that it would not accept the offer.
The outcome leaves GFL, the fourth largest diversified environmental services company in North America and Canada’s largest waste operator, to carry on as a public company under founder and chief executive Patrick Dovigi. It also vindicates the scepticism JPMorgan’s analysts expressed in October, when they advised clients to short GFL shares on the view that the board would turn the private equity suitors away. GFL shares closed at 45.88 dollars in New York on Monday, below both the rejected offer and the price the board demanded.